EFCL Board Package May 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep.

Download the May 13 Board Package



Hello District B Communities,

And I thought this was a slow month! Thanks again to the 11 of 13 District B community leagues that came to our special District Meeting to elect yours truly as your EFCL District B representative for two more years and Bernie Zolnar as your EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day! So our district now has two representatives at the EFCL. Thank you and congratulations to Bernie once again!

District B News

Northwest LRT
The City has completed its evaluation of the NW LRT Route and it recommended the LRT use the 113A Street route to 153 Avenue and then off towards St. Albert Trail. The route was chosen because it “maximizes ridership and connections.” The recommendation goes to Public Hearing on June 22 at City Hall and two more information sessions are planned for June 9 at Calder Hall and June 10 at Caernarvon Community Hall. DD COMMENT: Without prejudice to the communities to the west of us this route is good for our communities in District B since it brings rapid transit closer to us than either the 127 Street or St. Alberta Trail options they considered.

5.0 Highlights from Approved Minutes from April 8

The following items are highlights approved in the minutes from the April 8 meeting:

• Social House Policy – Notes from presentation by Walter Trocenko
• Surplus School Site Update – Notes on Tim McCarger’s update
• Capital and Operating Grants Request – EFCL motion to seek $3 million per year to deal with community league back log of capital projects
• Distribution of Social Housing – EFCL motion to distribute social housing
• EMHA Sale of $25 League Memberships – motion to take this to the AGM – it passed at the AGM
• Residential Lighting Program – EFCL motion to support light efficient communities
• Neighbourhood Schools – EFCL policy statement on neighbourhood schools

7.1 EFCL Meeting with Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs
As you have undoubtedly heard the EFCL secured a meeting with the Edmonton caucus and the provincial cabinet. Almost 150 community representatives have already registered.
We have a 90-minute meeting, from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Thursday, May 27.  LOCATION:  Balwin Community League, 12904 - 74 Street   GOOGLE MAP
 You must RSVP to communications@efcl.org  -  MAXIMUM 4 PER LEAGUE.  First come first serve.
Program details are still be worked out, but plans at this stage call for a short presentation from the EFCL at the outset, where we can identify some of our key concerns/projects (provincial grants, casino funding, keeping schools open and as community hubs, Living Local).  DD COMMENT: this is a very good opportunity to carry community issues forward.

7.3 EFCL rep. on EPCOR Water Services Community Advisory Panel
The EFCL board is looking for a representative for this community that considers water issues in Edmonton.


7.4 City Report Notice to Community Leagues
The EFCL Planning Committee recommended to the Board that the City provide agendas and supporting documents (reports) at least 14 days notice prior to the Council or Committee meeting and that an automatic extension be provided upon request to the City Clerk. The EFCL board discussed this proposal at length and felt it a better approach would be to take our concerns about notice directly to the City Clerk’s office and attempt to discuss a system that would give communities more notice, but not shut the City down. DD COMMENT: this is a long-standing issue, many community leagues discover issues at the last minute and with no opportunity for them to properly consider the City proposals before they go to Council.

7.6 EFCL Board Retreat – so why is that news?
Ok, so a board retreat is hardly news, but one of the topics on the agenda is a discussion about how to improve our process for recruiting and selecting of EFCL directors (the last AGM left four key positions unelected due to a lack of quorum for district communities even though there were good representatives available to serve).
The board also wants to discuss better ways to community to district leagues.

9.3 Executive Director’s Report highlights
Allan Bolstad, our intrepid executive director presented the EFCL’s emerging Living Local campaign to Mayor Mandel and Allan reports that the mayor supports the initiative.

• EFCL Disappointed with school closures – the EFCL has indicated that we are not interested in participating in school closure processes. We are interested in retaining schools in communities and or schools as community facilities critical to the heart of communities.
• Aquatic Development Committee Update – the city’s Aquatic Development Committee has been working since March 2009 on the allocation of pool space. They committee has dealt with a number of issues (standards of play, tournaments, an aquatic allocation policy and the proposed community league pool allocation model. A meeting of league and area council representatives is planned for early June. Not date has been set.
• Northerners Update – there is a committee of 44 agencies providing social services to North East Edmonton with a goal to work with immigrant communities. DD COMMENT: I suggested this group consider coming to Area Council and other regional meetings to share their work with leagues so we know what’s going on and because this is an area we struggle with too.

9.4 Community Development Officer’s Report
Shahriyar Khan’s report is working on a variety of initiatives – the one I will mention is the EFCL

9.5 Community Planning Officer’s Report
Bev Zubot, our planning officer and the EFCL Planning Committee is working on:

• Social Housing Distribution
• Family Oriented Muti-Family Housing
• Zoning bylaw changes – transition between small and big buildings, row housing and infill
• Smarter Residential Lighting
• Recreation Facility and School Planning

The EFCL is extremely busy these days, you can’t do it all, but hopefully this summary helps you follow some of the things that you and your community are interested in.

David Dodge

Bernie Zolnar elected as new District B Planning Committee Rep

Bernie Zolnar was elected the new President of Glengarry Community League and the EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day!

Eleven of the 13 community leagues in District B attended the Special District Meeting after we failed to get quorum at the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) Annual General Meeting on April 19.

Lago Lindo, Kilkenny, McLeod, Evansdale, Northmount, Londonderry, Balwin, Killarney, Delwood, Glengarry, Rosslyn and Belvedere community leagues attended the first District B meeting in many years on Tuesday May 4.

At the meeting David Dodge (yours truly) was re-elected as the EFCL District B Board Representative for the region. I am also currently the VP External of the EFCL as well.

This means our district has a representative on the board and one on the EFCL Planning Committee which works on city-wide planning issues on behalf of community leagues. The committee has started to become quite active monitoring new City policies and proposing policies for the EFCL. As Mike White from Lago Lindo said "It's good that we have someone from the Area 2 community leagues at the EFCL as well from the Area 17 community leagues to provide balanced representation."

The next Board meeting is May 13 at the EFCL offices. The meetings are open. Just today we heard the community leagues are going to be meeting with the Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs from the Tory Caucus near the end of May. We will let you know about the venue soon.

This will be a good chance to talk about a number of issues affecting community leagues in a round table format with the provincial government.

Congratulations Bernie for your election as the Planning Rep. I look forward to serving with you at the EFCL.  After the special District B meeting community folks from both Area 17 and Area 2 got together for a drink along with one of our MLAs.